Extending valuable impact beyond borders
How can the economies and societies in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands benefit from the arrival of the Einstein Telescope? A new expert committee on valorisation and impact aims to incentivise companies and knowledge institutions in the three countries to work together for the long term.
Without business, there can be no Einstein Telescope in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregio, i.e. the border area of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Businesses from those three countries can build the underground caverns, provide services such as data processing and energy management, and develop the observatory’s highly sensitive measuring equipment. This means opportunities as well as challenges for business and society as a whole, says valorisation manager Maxime Corvilain of the POM Limburg regional development agency.
Preparing for the Einstein Telescope
The new expert panel on valorisation and impact aims to devise initiatives that will prepare businesses and knowledge institutions in the three countries for the Einstein Telescope. Regionally, there are already successful incentive programmes for businesses and universities to jointly develop innovative technologies. “In that way we prepare businesses for the arrival of the Einstein Telescope,” Corvilain says. The initiatives provide a better insight into possible other applications, and help businesses gain experience so that in future they will be more competitive for tenders during the construction and operational phase.
As far as the Flemish valorisation manager is concerned, it is time to extend those regional initiatives across the border. A cohesive cross-border network with excellent expertise is, according to the valorisation committee, not only useful for the Einstein Telescope, but can also help enhance the economic character of the entire region.
Corvilain: “We are located in the middle of one of Europe’s leading high-tech regions, with a cohesive ecosystem of large and small businesses, leading universities and excellent practical education. That is a unique advantage that we need to capitalise on and thus maximise the socio-economic return of the project.”
Cross-border
From the University of Liège, Annick Pierrard participates in the expert panel. According to her, much innovation is still needed before the technology meets the high demands of the Einstein Telescope. In fact, the future gravitational wave observatory must be ten times more sensitive than existing facilities. This technological advancement requires cross-border cooperation, according to the Walloon valorisation manager.
“In Wallonia, Flanders, the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia there are already incentive programmes running,” explains Pierrard, “often based on regional funding, which makes it more difficult to engage an expert from outside the region. This is despite the fact that sometimes you know that a certain partner from Flanders, the Netherlands or North Rhine-Westphalia would contribute crucial know-how. We will therefore be looking for ways to encourage such Euroregional cooperation.”neemt Annick Pierrard deel aan het expertpanel. Volgens haar is er nog veel innovatie nodig voordat de technologie aan de hoge eisen van de Einstein Telescope voldoet. Het toekomstige observatorium voor zwaartekrachtsgolven moet namelijk tien keer gevoeliger zijn dan de bestaande installaties. Die technologieslag vraagt samenwerking over de grenzen heen, denkt de Waalse valorisatiemanager.
“In Wallonië, Vlaanderen, Nederland en Noordrijn-Westfalen lopen al stimuleringsprogramma’s,” vertelt Pierrard, “vaak gebaseerd op regionaal geld, waardoor het lastiger is om een expert van buiten de regio aan te haken. Terwijl je soms wéét: deze ene partner uit Vlaanderen, of Nederland, of Noordrijn-Westfalen zou cruciale know-how toevoegen. We gaan daarom op zoek naar manieren om zulke euregionale samenwerking te stimuleren.”
Benefit to society
According to the expert committee, the Einstein Telescope would generate more opportunities than just several specialised assignments for businesses. Other large-scale research centres such as CERN in Geneva have been drivers and enablers of innovation in their immediate vicinity for decades, with far greater economic impact than the researchers’ own assignments.
The Einstein Telescope should also become such a catalyst for its home region. The innovations that businesses develop for the Einstein Telescope, for example, may have other applications, e.g. precise measurement techniques for drug development, or control systems for chip manufacturing. However, the two Belgian valorisation experts think there is more to gain: a lasting boost for society.
“Engineering companies centred around the Einstein Telescope will demand highly skilled staff. Just imagine being a practical engineering student now, here in the region: the opportunities will be there for the taking later on. Thanks to that initial boost from the Einstein Telescope, many young people will be going into engineering to bring their own new innovations to the market.”
Lasting bonds
“The technological challenges of the Einstein Telescope require the best parties to work together to start solving them,” says Jorg van der Meij of the Dutch Limburg development agency LIOF, one of the Dutch members of the valorisation committee. “For this purpose, we desperately need input from the knowledge institutions, as well as small and large businesses.”
Will the Einstein Telescope really encourage new collaborations? According to Maxime Corvilain, this is already happening. A previous innovation programme for the Einstein Telescope, ET2SMEs, specifically brought together businesses from the three countries to develop small prototypes and equipment for, among other things, leak detection or measurements of dust particles. Left to themselves, these companies would not have discovered each other, but after their assignment for the Einstein Telescope, they continued to work together to come up with other new products, Corvilain discovered upon making enquiries.
“Admittedly, you have to overcome a hurdle in international cooperation; across the border the language and culture are different, you have other specialisms and different ways of working together. All that is worth learning from and we want to project that through our Meuse-Rhine Euregio. Not just to build the best possible Einstein Telescope; we will all ultimately benefit from more collaboration.”
